Alarm system providing wireless voice communication

ABSTRACT

An alarm system includes one or more audio stations, and an audio station network interface. The audio stations communicate wirelessly with the audio station network interface. The audio station network interface communicates with a monitoring center over a cellular network, to allow audio monitoring of the premises at the audio stations. The audio station network interface may be called by the monitoring center. Calls may optionally be placed by it in response to user interaction with one of the audio stations.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application is a continuation application of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 12/172,410 filed Jul. 14, 2008, the contents ofwhich are hereby incorporated by reference.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates generally to alarm systems, and moreparticularly to alarm systems that allow voice communication with amonitoring center.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Home and business alarms have become commonplace. Such alarms (oftenreferred to as “security systems” or “alarm systems”) typically includeseveral sensors used to monitor unauthorized entry and other conditionsat monitored premises, such as fire, smoke, toxic gases, high/lowtemperature (e.g. freezing) or flooding, at a premises. In response tosensing an alarm condition, one or more of these sensors provides asignal to an alarm panel that in turn may sound and notify theoccurrence of the alarm to occupants of the premises and remotely signala monitoring station or other third party.

Typically the occurrence of an alarm is signalled to a remote monitoringstation that may then dispatch capable authorities to intervene at thepremises. For example, in the case of sensing an unauthorized entry tothe premises, the monitoring station may dispatch security personnel,typically in the form of private security guards or police officers.

In addition to monitoring and signalling certain alarm conditions, livevoice communication with the monitored premises may be desirable. Inthis way, intruders may be scared off, and occupants may be guided orassisted. Live voice communication, however, typically requires adedicated wired connection to a monitoring station, or prolonged use ofthe premises telephone line, preventing an occupant from calling others,such as the police, friends or relatives.

Further, conventional alarm systems that allow voice communicationtypically do so through a central panel, capable of otherwise signallingsensed alarms. As such, upgrading existing alarm systems typicallyrequires the replacement of the panel.

Accordingly there is a need for alarm systems that allow voicecommunications with a monitoring center, possibly by way of addition orretrofit.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Exemplary of embodiments of the present invention, an alarm systemincludes one or more audio stations, and an audio station networkinterface. The audio stations communicate wirelessly with the audiostation network interface. The audio station network interfacecommunicates with a monitoring center over a cellular network, to allowaudio monitoring of the premises at the audio stations. The audiostation network interface may be called by the monitoring center. Callsmay optionally be placed by it in response to user interaction with oneof the audio stations.

In accordance with an aspect of the present invention, a method ofprocessing an alarm at a premises, comprises: sensing the alarm at apremises; signalling the alarm from the premises to a monitoring center;from the monitoring center establishing a cellular network call to anetwork to audio monitoring station interface at a cellular networkaddress, at the premises; establishing a radio channel from the networkto audio monitoring station interface to at least one audio station atthe premises, the audio station comprising at least one of speaker and amicrophone, and bridging the radio channel to the cellular network callto establish an audio channel from the at least one audio interface tothe monitoring center.

In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, an alarmsystem at a monitored premises, comprises: a control panel; a pluralityof sensors in communication with the control panel, each of the sensorsfor sensing a monitored alarm condition; a plurality of audio stations,each of the audio stations comprising at least one of a speaker and amicrophone; and a radio transceiver; an audio station network interface,comprising a radio for communicating with a cellular communicationsnetwork; and a radio transceiver for establishing a radio channel withat least one of the plurality of audio stations, the radio transceiverand the radio interconnected to bridge the radio channel to a call overthe cellular communications network.

Other aspects and features of the present invention will become apparentto those of ordinary skill in the art upon review of the followingdescription of specific embodiments of the invention in conjunction withthe accompanying figures.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In the figures which illustrate by way of example only, embodiments ofthe present invention,

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an alarm system at a monitoredpremises, exemplary of an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a schematic block diagram of an alarm panel of the system ofFIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a schematic block diagram of an audio station of the alarmsystem of FIG. 1; and

FIG. 4 is a schematic block diagram of an audio station networkinterface of the alarm system of FIG. 1;

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

FIG. 1 depicts a residential or business premises 10 guarded by an alarmsystem 100 including panel 20 in communication with a plurality ofsensors 18. Panel 20 of FIG. 1 is schematically depicted in FIG. 2.

Sensors 18 may be entry sensors, flood sensors, motion detectors, smokedetectors, glass breakage sensors, or any other sensors to be monitored,as appreciated by those of ordinary skill. Sensors 18 may also includeuser interface sensors/panels. Sensors 18 may be in communication withpanel 20, wirelessly, by a wired interconnect, through the electricwiring of premises 10, or otherwise. The alarm system may furtherinclude other interfaces such as key pads, sirens, and the like, notspecifically illustrated in FIG. 1.

Panel 20 is further interconnected with a conventional telephonenetwork. In the depicted embodiment, panel 20 is interconnected with thepublic switched telephone network (the PSTN) 12 and may be incommunication with one or more other communication network(s), through anetwork interface module 28. Alternatively, or additionally panel 20 maybe interconnected with network 16 in the form of a cellular telephonenetwork that carries both voice and data. Cellular network 16 may, forexample, be a GPRS/GSM cellular network, and as such be considered a GSMnetwork and GPRS network. As will become apparent, panel 20 couldinstead or additionally be in communication with some other network suchas a wide area wireless data network, a wired data network such as theinternet, or the like.

A monitoring center 14 is in communication with PSTN 12 and cellularnetwork 16. Monitoring center 14 is depicted as a single monitoringcenter in FIG. 1. Monitoring center 14 could be formed of multiplemonitoring stations, each at different physical locations. For example,some monitoring stations could be in communication with network 16,others with in communication with PSTN 12. Monitoring center 14 isassociated with a plurality of PSTN telephone numbers, and optionallyother network addresses, such as a cellular network or data address,that may be used to contact monitoring center 14 to provide dataindicative of a monitored event, at a monitored alarm system, such asthe alarm system including panel 20 at premises 10. Typically,monitoring center 14 is manned with personnel, equipped to respond to asignalled alarm and able to dispatch emergency personnel, such assecurity personnel, the police, fire department or the like.

Exemplary of an embodiment of the present invention, alarm system 100,further includes a plurality of audio stations 32 a, 32 b, 32 c . . .(individually, and collectively audio station(s) 32) and an audiostation network interface 30. In the depicted embodiment, audio stations32 are each wirelessly in communication with audio station networkinterface 30, over a uni-, or bi-directional radio channel. Audiostations 32 may be placed throughout premises 10, at locationsconvenient to occupants at premises 10. As will become apparent, audiostation network interface 30 bridges the one or more radio channels ofaudio station network interface 30 to a monitoring station to allowvoice communication from a monitoring center, such as monitoring center14, to premises 10 in case of an alarm, or otherwise, over cellularnetwork 16.

Example alarm panel 20 is more particularly illustrated in FIG. 2. Asillustrated, alarm panel 20 includes a central processor 34 incommunication with memory 24 and a sensor interface 26. A networkinterface 28 is further in communication with processor 34. Networkinterface 28 is interconnected with telephone feed for the remainder ofpremises 10 and provides an output at tip and ring lines of networkinterface 28. For example, tip and ring lines are typically suited forinterconnection with PSTN 12. However, tip and ring lines of interface28 could feed a network interface module that is in communication withseveral networks including PSTN 12 and cellular network 16, as forexample detailed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/728,478, thecontents of which are hereby incorporated by reference. Softwarecontrolling overall operation of panel 20, and hence system 100 may beloaded in memory 24. Sensor interface 26 may communicate with sensors 18by wires, wirelessly, over electrical wiring, or otherwise. Panel 20 mayfurther include conventional components (not shown), such as a powersupply, antennal, and the like.

An example audio station 32 is schematically depicted in FIG. 3. Asillustrated audio station 32 includes one or more audio transducers—inthe form of a speaker 42 and a microphone 44, interconnected with aradio transceiver 46. Radio transceiver 46 may take the form of aconventional cordless telephone transceiver, and may for example takethe form of a spread-spectrum radio transceiver operating at 900 MHz,2.4 GHz; 5.8 GHz; or the like. Radio transceiver 46 may for example beformed as a single integrated circuit available from Broadcomm, TexasInstruments and Freescale or others. Radio transceiver 46 may beaddressable and operate on a unique frequency, allowing concurrentoperation of multiple radio transceivers (and thus multiple audiostations 32). Audio station 32 may also include a switch 38, that may beactuated by an occupant to activate radio transceiver 46. Onceactivated, radio transceiver 46 may attempt to establish a radio channelto a complementary transceiver (detailed below). Audio station 32 mayfurther include conventional components (not shown), such as a powersupply (in the form of an AC power supply, battery, or the like), anantenna, and the like.

As well, radio transceiver 46 may include control logic to receive andrespond to a unique radio control signal, that once received may causeradio transceiver 46 to activate speaker 42 and microphone 44 andestablish a link to a complementary transceiver. Alternatively, radiotransceiver 46 may also include control logic to activate acoder/decoder (codec) which in turn may activate speaker 42 andmicrophone 44.

Example audio station network interface 30 is schematically depicted inFIG. 4. As illustrated, audio station network interface 30 includes acellular network transceiver 52—for example in the form of aconventional GSM or CDMA cellular network radio transceiver, able toestablish and receive conventional cellular network calls over cellulartelephone network 16 (FIG. 1). Optionally, cellular network transceiver52 is further capable of receiving and transmitting cellular networkdata. To this end, cellular network transceiver 52 may be a combinedGSM/GPRS radio transceiver, a CDMA 1× transceiver, or the like. Cellularnetwork transceiver 52 may be formed as a single integrated be circuitor module, as for example made available by Motorola in the form of G24EGSM/GPRS module. Transceiver 52 accordingly is addressable over cellularnetwork 16, by way of its own telephone number, International MobileEquipment Identity (IMEI), or similar network identifier. Control logic54 of cellular network transceiver 52 provides control signals inresponse to receiving an incoming cellular network call, or receiveddigital data over network 16. Again, audio station network interface 30may further include conventional components (not shown), such as a powersupply, antennal, and the like.

Audio station network interface 30 also includes a local radiotransceiver 56, complementary to radio transceiver 46 of each audiostation 32. Radio transceiver 46/56 may be similar to a radio such asthe CC2511 offered by Texas Instruments. Radio transceiver 46/56 mayalso include control logic in the form of a microcontroller, such as aFreescale MC9S08GT16. Radio transceiver 56 may establish a radio channellocal within premises 10 and provide and receive audio signals totransceiver 46 of each of audio stations 32. Conveniently, local radiotransceiver 56 may establish multiple independent radio channels—one toeach of the multiple audio transceivers 46 at premises 10—concurrently.Control signals from control logic 54 may cause radio transceiver 56 toselectively address and establish radio links to audio stations 32. Forexample, suitable GPRS network control signal(s) from monitoring center14 to network to audio station 30 may cause audio station to networkinterface 30 to activate one or more of audio stations 32. Any suitableaddressing technique from radio transceiver 56 to any one of transceiver46 may be used.

Audio signals from wireless radio transceiver 56 may be provided tocellular radio transceiver 52 and thus to cellular network 16, over aconventional cellular network voice call. Similarly, audio signals fromnetwork 16 may be provided from transceiver 52 to cordless radiotransceiver 56, and thus to individual audio stations 32. In this way,one or two way voice calls from monitoring center 14 may be bridged toradio channels to audio stations 32 at audio station network interface30 (i.e. from network 16 to audio station network interface 30, tocordless radio transceiver 56, to radio transceiver 46 of each audiostation 32). In this way, monitoring center 14 may establish a uni- orbi-directional audio channel with premises 10.

In operation, sensors 18 and panel 20 interact in a conventional manner.As a particular sensor 18 is tripped signifying a sensed condition, thesensor provides a signal, wirelessly or through wired interconnect, topanel 20. Panel 20, in turn, places a network communication, typicallyin the form of a call, to a pre-programmed telephone number to contactmonitoring center 14, typically by way of PSTN 12.

In order to ensure that panel 20 has unfettered access to PSTN 12, thewired telephone feed, providing telephone signals to the remainder ofpremises 10, may be routed through panel 20. This feed may beselectively disconnected from PSTN 12 by for example, a relay or thelike, as panel 20 originates a call.

Software controlling the operation of central processor 32, and hencepanel 20, may be embedded in processor 32 or may be stored in memory 24external to processor 32. This software may be conventional, and maycontrol overall operation of panel 20, including its interaction withsensors 18 and/or a control panel, for access and control. Morespecifically, the software causes alarm panel 20, through interface 28to place one or more outgoing telephone calls after detection of analarm event. Prior to placing the outgoing call, interface 28 maydisconnect telephone feed 22 from PSTN 12. Typically, the alarm eventrepresents the tripping of one of sensors 18 when alarm panel 20 is inits armed state.

The outgoing telephone call or calls may be placed to monitoring center14, or any other alternate number (such as a subscriber number) bydialing a stored PSTN telephone number. The PSTN telephone number(s) tobe called (e.g. the number of monitoring center 14) may bepre-programmed by an administrator of panel 20, and also stored withinmemory 24. Different sensed conditions may be associated with differentPSTN number(s), thereby allowing different sensed conditions to besignalled to different monitoring stations, alternate numbers, or thelike.

Once a pre-programmed number has been called, processor 34 generates asuitable message to the recipient. For example, if the called numbed isa monitoring center (such as monitoring center 14), data representativeof the sensed alarm may be generated, encapsulated, and passed tomonitoring center 14. The data, for example, may be encapsulated usingany one of a number of modulation techniques. For example, the data maybe passed to the monitoring center as a series of dual-tone,muli-frequency (“DTMF”) tones using, for example, the SIA Protocol (asspecified in the ANSI SIA DC-03-1990.01 Standard, the contents of whichare hereby incorporated by reference), the ContactID Protocol, or asmodulated data, modulated as pulses, or on a carrier frequency. If thenumber called is a subscriber number, processor 34 may generate a voicemessage to be heard by the subscriber.

Once an alarm has been signalled, monitoring center 14 may dispatchpersonnel or the police to premises 10. Data stored at monitoring centermay identify the address of premises 10. Monitoring center 14 mayfurther place a call to one or more designated telephone numbers (alsostored at monitoring center 14) to notify the owner of premises 10 (orhis/her designee) of the sensed alarm condition.

Additionally, and in manners, exemplary of embodiments of the presentinvention, monitoring center 14 may initiate a cellular network callover cellular network 16 to audio station 32 by way of audio stationnetwork interface 30 of the alarm system at premises 10 that hassignalled the alarm. Again, the cellular network address of audiostation network interface 30 may be stored at monitoring center 14.Prior to establishing the call (or thereafter) monitoring center 14 mayfurther provide data to interface 30 to control radio transceiver 56, toselectively communicate with ones of audio station(s) 32, causingselected audio stations 32 to establish a radio channel with interface30, which may be bridged by audio station network interface 30 tomonitoring center 14. As noted, the radio channels may be uni orbi-directional with speaker 42 and microphone 44. Thus, at premises 10,a one or two way voice channel between selected ones of audio interfaces32 and monitoring center 14 may be established, by way of audio stationnetwork interface.

Conveniently, monitoring center 14 may thus communicate with a residentat premise 10, or with an intruder at the premises through audiostation(s) 32. The resident/or intruders voice may be heard and recordedat monitoring center 14. As well, specific questions may be asked of theresident and/or intruder, and voice warnings may be given.

Optionally, an occupant at premises 10 could initiate voicecommunication with center 14, simply by actuating a switch 38 at any ofany of audio station(s) 32. Audio station 32, in turn, signals audiostation network interface 30 to establish a radio channel with theinterface originating the signal. Control logic 54 may be sufficientlyprogrammable to cause audio station network interface 30 to establish anoutgoing cellular network call to a pre-determined number, identifyingmonitoring center 14. Once the call has been placed, the radio channelto the audio station 32 and the call may be bridged at interface 40,allowing the occupant to establish voice communication with monitoringcenter 14. Prior to bridging the radio channel, data identifying theorigin of the call may be provided to monitoring center 14.

Conveniently, audio station interface 30 and audio stations 32 need notbe physically interconnected with panel 20. They may thus be added to analready existing alarm system at premises 10. In this way, the existingalarm system need not be re-wired, or replaced. Further, as network toaudio station interface 30 uses cellular network 16, a voice connectionbetween monitoring center 14 and audio station(s) 32 may be initiated atcenter 14, or at audio stations 32, and need not tie-up PSTN 12,allowing an occupant to make an outgoing telephone call over PSTN 12,after the alarm has been signalled.

In alternate embodiments, audio station interface 30 may be integratedwith, or interconnected to panel 20. Upon sensing an alarm condition,panel 20 may signal audio station interface 30 to initiate a call tomonitoring center 14 and activate one or more of audio stations 32.

In another embodiment, audio station 32 may be integrated with the alarmpanel 20. A further audio station interface 30 may be remote from panel20. Audio station 32 may communicate with audio station interface 30 asdescribed above, or with PSTN 12 network interface 28 of panel 20, toestablish voice communication over PSTN 12. Upon sensing an alarmcondition, alarm panel 20 may choose to communicate the alarm conditionto monitoring center 14 via the PSTN connected to panel 14, or throughthe audio station interface 30, by way of radio transceiver 32 in audiostation 32 at panel 20. Monitoring center 14 may then choose to initiateaudio communication via PSTN, by placing a call to audio stationinterface 30.

Of course, the above described embodiments are intended to beillustrative only and in no way limiting. The described embodiments ofcarrying out the invention are susceptible to many modifications ofform, arrangement of parts, details and order of operation. Theinvention, rather, is intended to encompass all such modification withinits scope, as defined by the claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method of processing an alarm at a premises,said method comprising: sensing an alarm condition at said premises;signalling said alarm condition to a panel comprising a processor and afirst network interface; signalling said alarm from said premises to amonitoring center remote from said premises using said first networkinterface at said panel; from the monitoring center and in response toreceiving said signalling, initiating a voice call to a network addressof an audio station to network interface (AS/NW Interface) at thepremises, said AS/NW Interface comprising a second network interface, aradio and control logic separate from said processor; said control logicand said radio establishing a radio channel from said AS/NW Interface atthe premises to at least one audio station at the premises, said audiostation comprising an audio station radio and a speaker and amicrophone; and said control logic bridging said radio channel to saidvoice call to establish an audio channel between said at least one audiostation and said monitoring center via said radio and said audio stationradio.
 2. The method of claim 1, further comprising selectivelyestablishing said radio channel from said AS/NW Interface to a selectedone of a plurality of audio monitoring stations at the premises.
 3. Themethod of claim 1, further comprising providing a control signal fromsaid monitoring station to said AS/NW Interface to activate said atleast one audio station using said control logic.
 4. The method of claim1, wherein said voice call is established over a cellular telephonenetwork.
 5. The method of claim 3, wherein said control signal comprisesa GPRS data signal.
 6. An alarm system at a monitored premises,comprising: a control panel comprising a first network interface and aprocessor for communicating a sensed monitored alarm condition at themonitored premises to a monitoring station; a plurality of sensors incommunication with said control panel, each of said sensors for sensinga monitored alarm condition; at least one audio station comprising aradio, a speaker and a microphone at said monitored premises; an audiostation to network interface (AS/NW Interface) at said premises, saidAS/NW Interface comprising (i) control logic which is separate from saidprocessor; (ii) a second network interface for communicating with acommunication network; and (iii) a radio transceiver for establishing aradio channel with at least one of said audio stations by way of itsradio at said premises, said control logic interconnecting said radiotransceiver and said second network interface to bridge said radiochannel to a call over said second network interface, and therebyprovide two way audio communication to and from said at least one ofsaid audio stations at said premises.
 7. The alarm system of claim 6,wherein said control logic activates a selected one of said at least oneaudio station in response to commands received over said second networkinterface.
 8. The alarm system of claim 6, wherein said audio stationnetwork interface is operable to receive voice calls over said secondnetwork interface.
 9. The alarm system of claim 8, wherein said radiotransceiver of said AS/NW Interface comprises a spread spectrum radiotransceiver.
 10. The alarm system of claim 8, wherein said secondnetwork interface comprises a cellular network radio.
 11. An alarmsystem at a monitored premises comprising: means for sensing an alarm ata premises; a first network interface; a second network interface; aradio; processing means for signalling said alarm from said premises toa monitoring center using said first network interface; control meansfor receiving a network voice call from the monitoring center using saidsecond network interface, wherein said control means is separate fromsaid processing means; wherein said control means, said radio and saidsecond network interface form part of an audio station to networkinterface (AS/NW Interface), at the premises; wherein said control meansis adapted to establish a radio channel using said radio from said AS/NWInterface to at least one audio station at the premises, said audiostation comprising a speaker and a microphone, and an audio stationradio, and means for bridging said radio channel to said network voicecall to establish an audio channel from said at least one audio stationto said monitoring center.
 12. A method of retrofitting an existingalarm system at a premises equipped with a network interface capable ofcommunicating an alarm condition at the premises to a monitoring center,said method comprising: installing at the premises, at least one audiostation, comprising a speaker and a microphone and a radio transceiver;installing at the premises, an audio station to network interface (AS/NWInterface) comprising a control logic; a network interface forcommunicating with a network to carry a voice call; and a radiotransceiver for establishing a radio channel with at least one of saidaudio stations, said control logic interconnecting said radiotransceiver and said network interface to bridge said radio channel to avoice call over said network; updating existing data stored at saidmonitoring center to associate a network identifier identifying saidAS/NW Interface with said existing alarm system so that, in response toan alarm condition at the premises, said monitoring center is capable ofinitiating a voice call to said AS/NW Interface that may be bridged bysaid control logic to establish an audio channel from said at least oneaudio station to said monitoring center.